NDJ:2 Celeste Sinton .

The Illusion

Over Cincinnati Ohio, thick velvety gray clouds quilt the sky on a late spring day.
Underneath lies a hillside lush with the resplendent bodies
of hardwoods, full as mature men and women: all tangles and
breasts and buttocks and branches heavy with foliage and shade,
unperturbed by the occasional intrusion of midwestern sunlight.

After all,|
the sun
never leaves
the sky
and night
is only
the illusion
of its absence.

Believing you were really gone, the morning sunrise
through my window came as a shock. My
legs were wrapped around a feather pillow.
The air was very still—no breath.